The name usually given to the Book of Rites, or rather to its contents,
is, in the Canienga dialect, _Okayondonghsera Yondennase_ (or in
the French missionary orthography, _Okaiontonhstra Iontennase_),
which may be rendered "Ancient Rites of the Condoling Council."
[Footnote: _Okaionlonhsera_ is a substantive derived from
_akaion_, old, or ancient. The termination _sera_ gives it an
abstract sense. "The antiquities," or rather "the ancientnesses," is the
nearest literal rendering which our language allows, _Iontennase_
is a verbal form, derived from _kitenre_ (in Bruyas,
_gentenron_), to pity, or sympathize with. It may be rendered "they
who sympathize," or "the condolers." Both, words, however, have acquired
a special meaning in their application to these ceremonies.] Among the
many councils, civil and religious, tribal and federal, in which the
public spirit and social temper of the Iroquois found their most
congenial and most popular mode of display, the Yondennase, the
Condoling (or Mourning) Council, held the highest rank. It was, in a
certain way, typical of the whole, and comprised the elements of all the
other councils. In its earlier form this council was not peculiar to the
Iroquois. We know, from the Jesuit reports, that it was the custom of
the Hurons to hold a public lamentation for the death of a chief, and at
the same time to appoint another who should take his place and assume
his name. But that which among the Hurons was merely a tribal custom
became, in the Iroquois form of government, an important institution,
essential to the maintenance of their state. By the ordinances of their
League, it was required that the number of their federal senate should
be maintained undiminished. On the death of one of its members, it was
the duty of the nation to which he belonged to notify the other nations
of the event, and of the time and place at which he would be lamented
and his successor installed. The notice was given in the usual manner,